Can stress cause anal glad release?

[kazzy220]

As the other's have said, yes stress and excitement can cause them to express their anal glands a bit. The first time I experienced it was at the vets office with Orion about 5/6 years ago, he was our pitty who has since passed. The vet tech took him from the for a blood draw and when she came back with him I thought I was going to gag. WTH was that smell I asked. "oh he expressed his anal gland." "HIS WHAT!!!", I said. I made her wipe his down right there but that didn't help at all cause the gland juice was already all over him. It by far was the worst smell my nose had ever experienced. LOL

Whodathought I'd go on to learn so much about anal glands... Here's a fantastic article I researched and prepped. It'll answer more questions than you ever wanted to know and anal glands.

Anal Gland Care - Everything you need to know!

It can start at any age. It's really depends on who hard the stools are and if the anal glands are in the right position to be expressed when they poop. What happens for ALL dogs is when the poop is coming down the shoot, it passes between the two anal glands and applies pressure on them causing them to express a bit each and every time they poop. If the stools are too soft and the glands aren't in the right alignment, well they can express themselves naturally. It can be at any age too.

It's some stinky stuff no doubt!!!

 

[Lisabear123]

I bet! I've never had to have a dog's glands expressed but I've read about scootching being a possible sign of discomfort so I was just curious as to an age factor. Brie does not scootch a lot, only sometimes, so I wanted more info. Thank you for the ino!

 

[ChrisRN]

We call this fish-butt. Orion is forever doing this. Most of the time, the anal glands empty themselves during defecation. Yes...being startled can do this. In our case, Orion's right gland is the issue. Occasionally she will wake up and her gland had leaked during the night. Sometimes she will be sleeping and we smell it. With her...it just happens. We use baby wipes...but the smell is still there. This is what we've been doing...Bath & Bodyworks makes a foam soap with some great smells. A small amount of this on a baby wipe cleans and removes all smell of fish from her bottom. We also have a product from Petsmart that we spray if it ends up on the couch or carpet. It's a nasty nasty NASTY part of owning a bulldog with a faulty anal gland. Orion knows when it happens that her bottom needs attention...she will get off the couch and head for the booty wash station located by the back door.

We call it "stinky fish butt." We only have it occasionally with Mabel, but it was a frequent occurrence with our last bullmastiff. Nothing special precipitated it. She could be relaxed, excited, anxious, angry, etc. we used a bio deodorizer on whatever she was sitting on. The vet told us it was good that the dog was expressing the glands and that it would be worse if we had to manually do it!